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Sermon Transcript
Well, good morning everybody. It's great to see you all again, and some new people as well. The title of my sermon this morning is "The Replacement in the Wilderness."
What I'm preaching on this morning is this doctrine that we call replacement theology. Some people might want to call it covenant theology or fulfilment theology — whatever name you want to give it. It's this idea that the physical nation of Israel in the Old Testament has been replaced in the New Testament, not with the institution of the church, but with a spiritual nation made up of all believers. Now, why preach on this? Why be here and preach this when all the other independent fundamental Baptist churches in Melbourne do not believe this doctrine, and they believe what we would call Christian Zionism — this idea that God is not done with that physical nation of Israel, but he still has a plan for them. He has just set them aside while he deals with the church, but he is going to pick them up again, and they are going to inherit that land and are somehow still part of God's plan.
We are going to look this morning at the story of Israel when they were in the wilderness and see what lessons we can learn from it. If you are in Exodus 32, God has freed the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. He has brought them across the Red Sea into the wilderness, and they have come to Mount Sinai. Moses has already been up and down from Mount Sinai. He has given them the old covenant and the Ten Commandments already in Exodus chapter 20. And now we get to Exodus 32. Moses has been up in Mount Sinai for 40 days and 40 nights.
We read from verse one: "And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him." He has been up there 40 days and 40 nights, and they are getting worried. They have not seen him, they do not know what is happening, and they are starting to fear. And what do they do? They make themselves a golden calf. God had already told them in Exodus 20 not to make any graven image or any likeness of anything under the heaven, and they go and do it — they make a molten calf and worship it.
Now look at verse 9. The Lord says to Moses, still up in the mount: "And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation." So God is telling Moses right here, right at the start of the old covenant, "I am done with Israel. I am going to make you a great nation. I am going to start again with you, Moses, because these people have already broken my commandment." If God is ready to replace Israel in the wilderness, he can certainly replace Israel in the New Testament with something greater — a new nation, not with Moses, but a new nation made from Jesus Christ, with Jesus as the head.
This is the passage that replacement theology draws on in Matthew 21, where Jesus gives a parable and says, "The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof." He replaces a nation with a nation. And what is he saying to Moses? "I will make of thee a great nation."
I have three points this morning, and they all begin with the letter P to help you remember them.
Point 1: The Pattern of Replacement
Let us look at some examples from the Old Testament of how God actually replaces — or in this case threatens to replace — the children of Israel. If you turn to Romans chapter 9, think about Noah's flood and what happened there. The whole earth was filled with violence, and what did God do? He chose one man and one family to start again. He replaced the whole population of the world with one man — just as he said to Moses, "I am going to replace the children of Israel with you." This is the pattern of God's replacement.
In Romans 9 from verse 6: "Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called." God called Abraham and chose him out and promised to make a great nation out of him. You would think that promise would go to all of Abraham's children. But what is God saying here? No — it is only going to Isaac. The promise did not go to Ishmael. God is again narrowing the people that he is choosing. It is not the family of Abraham broadly; it is now the family of Abraham through Isaac. And verse 13 says, "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated." What he is explaining is that the promise passed from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob. It is not all of Isaac's children either, because there was Jacob and Esau. He narrowed it down to one family, constantly taking one family out of a larger group.
Romans 9:15: "For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." This is quoting Exodus 33, right after the incident we saw with the golden calf, where God threatened to replace the nation of Israel with the nation of Moses. He is saying: if I want to choose this person over that person, I can do that. If I want to cut this one off and choose Moses to be a nation, I can. If I want to choose Isaac over Ishmael, I can have mercy on whom I will have mercy.
Turn to Numbers 14. This is another story of the children of Israel in the wilderness. They were at the border of Canaan and sent 12 spies to search out the land. They chose a representative from each of the tribes, and 10 came back with an evil report, saying, "There are giants in the land, the cities are fenced, we will not be able to take it." Joshua and Caleb gave a good report: "The land is flowing with milk and honey. We can go and take it." They trusted in the promises, but the 10 did not.
From Numbers 14:1: "And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt." Imagine all that God has done for them — how he delivered them from Egypt, brought them through the Red Sea, performed all those miracles in the wilderness where he fed them and gave them drink — and then they do not believe God can bring them all the way into the promised land.
From verse 6: "And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes: and they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us: fear them not. But all the congregation bade stone them with stones." They wanted to stone Moses, Aaron, Joshua, and Caleb. These Jews are always just trying to kill the prophets of God.
Now look at what God says in verse 11: "And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them? I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they." The second time in the wilderness the people of Israel have not believed God, have not believed his promises, and God says, "I am done with Israel. I am going to disinherit them and make of you, Moses, a greater nation."
If God twice in the wilderness already wants to disinherit Israel, how much more so when they not only stone the prophets but kill God himself — when they kill Jesus Christ in the New Testament? He wants to be done with them and make of Jesus a greater nation.
Now, the Christian Zionists today will tell us that land is Israel's inheritance. But look — God is saying, "I will disinherit them." He threatened to do it in the wilderness, and he did do it in the New Testament.
Turn to 2 Kings chapter 17. We are going chronologically through the Bible looking at examples of how God is replacing his people, constantly narrowing it down to a smaller and smaller group. At the start, when he made man, he was dealing with all of mankind. Then he narrowed it down to Noah, then to Abraham, then to Isaac, then to Jacob, and he threatened to narrow it further to Moses. But now look what happens in 2 Kings chapter 17.
From verse 6: "In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria." Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel. After Solomon died, the kingdom was broken into the northern kingdom made up of the 10 tribes and the southern kingdom of Judah — Judah, Benjamin, and whatever Levites were around. The northern kingdom always seemed to have a wicked king and was constantly breaking God's commandments.
From verse 7: "For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods, and walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made." The people were constantly and wickedly sinning, having idols, worshipping other gods. And God says: I am done with Israel.
Verse 18: "Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only." And verse 23: "Until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day." God took away that nation of Israel, that northern kingdom. And even into New Testament times, they were not considered Jews. When Jesus was talking to the woman at the well, she herself said, "For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans." They were not considered the people of God by the Jews themselves. Ironically, the Jews recognised replacement theology when it came to the northern kingdom — they acknowledged those people were no longer God's people. And yet in the New Testament, they do not recognise that they themselves have been replaced by a new nation.
Flip over to Romans chapter 11, verse 13: "For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office: if by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them. For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?" The Bible is clearly saying they have been cast away. Israel has been cast away. Just as that northern kingdom was cast away, now that southern kingdom has been cast away as well.
"For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; boast not against the branches." What he is saying is yes, they have been broken off so that we might be grafted in. That branch has been replaced with a wild olive branch. That kingdom of Israel has been broken off and replaced by us in the New Testament — by those who believe, whether Jew or Gentile. This olive tree is Christ, and throughout history there are branches constantly being broken off and grafted in. This is the pattern of God's replacement.
God makes a covenant with people. Men break that covenant. God replaces them or cuts them off. Now, will God replace us in the New Testament? No, he will not. Because this is not a two-way covenant. It is a one-way covenant. God is the one who has promised us eternal life. He has promised to keep us and hold us in his hand. There is nothing we can do to be broken off in the New Testament because we have believed on him. The New Testament is a better covenant — there is no risk of us being broken off.
Point 2: The Promise of Replacement
Flip back to Exodus 32 and we will pick up the story from verse 11, where Moses is now interceding for the people of Israel.
"And Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people." His first point of intercession is: you have brought them out of the land of Egypt. If you do not deliver them, people are going to think you did not have the power to fulfil what you set out to do. Then his second point, in verse 13: "Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidest unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever. And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people."
Moses is appealing to the promise made to Abraham back in Genesis — that God would bless him and multiply his seed as the stars of heaven, and give that land as an everlasting possession. This appeal seems to work, and God repented of the evil he was going to do unto them.
We see a lot today where people are also appealing to this same promise to defend the idea that Israel is still God's people and has not been cast off. But was this promise really about this physical people in this physical land?
Turn to Romans chapter 4. The famous verse is Galatians 3:16, which speaks directly to this: "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ." Who is the seed God is talking about? The promise to Abraham and to his seed is to Jesus Christ. So when Moses tells God, "Remember your promise to Abraham and his seed," he is really saying, "Do not replace Israel with me. I am not the seed. I am not the promised one. There is one to come — Jesus Christ. He is the one you need to replace them with." Whether Moses fully understood that or not, that is what he was saying. He was reminding God: I am not that seed that is to come.
Romans 4:13: "For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect." Who is going to inherit that land? Is it those through the law — the Old Testament children of Israel by keeping the law and the old covenant? No. If it were through the law, it would be void, because it has to be by faith in Jesus Christ, for that is the seed to whom it was promised.
Verse 16: "Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all." If we have faith, we are blessed with Abraham. We are heirs to that promise. We are the ones who are going to inherit that land — through faith.
Verse 23: "Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead." Those promises to Abraham are through Jesus Christ, and when we believe in Jesus we inherit that promise.
As we already read in Romans 9: "They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." It was Isaac who was the seed, the younger brother rather than the elder. The older brother represents the old covenant, which came first. But the younger brother represents the New Testament, the new covenant, which came later. We are Isaac. We are of the new covenant. The elder shall serve the younger, the Bible says. Saying that the Jews today are God's people is as strange as saying that the Samaritans were God's people in Jesus' day, or that Ishmael was God's people. In fact, the Bible says that Ishmael represents the Jews. Turn to Galatians chapter 4.
Galatians 4:21: "Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all." And verse 28: "Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise."
The old covenant, the Jews, the nation of Israel — that is Ishmael. That is not the people of God. The people of God are those in Christ, in the New Testament, in that new covenant. We are the children of the promise.
Now let us look at the promises that the children of Israel had broken. Flip back to Exodus chapter 19, verse 5: "Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation." And all the people answered together and said, "All that the Lord hath spoken we will do." So the old covenant was established. God said: if you will obey my voice, then you will be my people. What happens if they do not obey? Then they are not God's people.
In chapter 20 he gives the Ten Commandments, and the second commandment in verse 4: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them." And in Exodus 32, what did they do? They made that molten calf and they worshipped it.
Exodus 32:19: "And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount." Moses broke the tables of the covenant, symbolising that they had broken the old covenant — that testament given unto them. That is why the Lord threatened to replace them: they had broken the covenant, and he no longer had to make them his people.
What did Moses then have to do? Chapter 34, verse 1: "And the Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest." And verse 10: "And he said, Behold, I make a covenant before all thy people." God is making a covenant with the people — not the new covenant, but the old covenant again, because they broke the first. God threatens to replace them, then makes a new covenant. This is the pattern that is foreshadowing what will happen in the New Testament: if they break that old covenant, they will be replaced and a new covenant will have to be made.
Now flip over to Numbers chapter 14. We have seen how Moses interceded for the people in Exodus 32. Now we will see what Moses says to God the second time, and what God replies.
From verse 13: Moses said, "Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;) and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they have heard that thou Lord art among this people, that thou Lord art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness. And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, The Lord is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now. And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word."
It is interesting that the second time Moses does not appeal to the promise made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — instead he appeals to the character of God. He is saying, "Thou art a merciful God. Thou art a gracious God." And surely he has, having put up with so much already in the wilderness. That gives us hope too. In the New Testament we have committed many sins, but thank God he is a gracious and merciful God, willing to forgive.
Now verse 20: "And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word: but as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord." Moses' argument is, "If you kill these people, you will not be glorified." And God says, "But the earth will be filled with my glory." Let us see how that happens. Verse 22: "Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it." Those people who did not believe in him are not going to see that land. They are not going to enter in.
Verse 29: "Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, doubtless ye shall not come into this land." Everyone that came out of Egypt from 20 years and older is going to die in the wilderness and not enter the promised land. "Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised. But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness." How is the earth going to be filled with God's glory? He is going to replace that unbelieving nation with a new generation that will believe. Only the believing remnant — Joshua and Caleb — are going to enter in.
Verse 33: "And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years; and ye shall know my breach of promise." They breached their promise, and so God was no longer bound to keep his. He had said: if you do these things I will be your God; if you keep these commandments, these are the blessings I will give you; if you do not, these are the cursings.
It is interesting that God gave this 40-year grace period to allow for a new generation to come up, rather than simply wiping them out and starting again with Moses. This is a 40-year period in which the people were replaced with a new people. And here is something remarkable: the most we can figure out from history, looking at when the Passover fell in the month of Abib, is that Jesus Christ died at around 30 AD. When Jesus died, that is when the replacement happened and the New Testament was instituted. Hebrews 8 says something interesting: "A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away." It seems like in Hebrews 8 the old covenant is not fully done away with, but is ready to vanish away. God gave a grace period for all those people under the Old Testament to hear the message and come on board into the New Testament. And what happened 40 years after 30 AD? In 70 AD the Romans came in, destroyed the temple, ended the sacrifices, and removed all the Jews out of Jerusalem. They were not allowed back in Jerusalem anymore. There is this 40-year period in the wilderness, and there is this 40-year period after Jesus dies — from when the Old Testament fully ended, that temple was destroyed, and they were again removed out of that land.
So how is God going to show his glory? Through replacing the people. Romans 11:11: "I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?" God's glory is going to be revealed through replacing that old testament with the new testament, by replacing the nation of Israel with a spiritual nation made up of all believers. The fall of them is the riches of the world.
In Acts 13:45, Paul is in Antioch of Pisidia preaching to the Gentiles: "But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed." How is God going to be glorified in all the world? Through the preaching to the Gentiles, through the Gentiles being able to come in. And look — they were glad and they glorified the word of the Lord.
Romans 9:22: "What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory." Those vessels of wrath — that Old Testament nation of Israel, that old covenant — he knew would be destroyed. They were fitted to destruction. And with longsuffering he dealt with them through all their sin and wickedness, through the wilderness, through the whole history of the nation of Israel. Why? That he might make known the riches of his glory. When he then shows mercy to those vessels of mercy, he is glorified. In the replacement of that unbelieving nation with the believing nation is how God is glorified — and that is how the gospel goes out to the whole world, because we are the ones doing it. The Old Testament nation of Israel was supposed to be a light to the world. The world was supposed to look at them, their laws, their righteousness, and glorify God. And yet they constantly turned away from the Lord. So he replaced them with a new nation that would glorify God.
Point 3: The People of Replacement
Romans 9:24: "Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? As he saith also in Osee," — that is Hosea — "I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God." Who are the people of God in the New Testament? Those who were not called the people of God in the Old Testament. It is not that nation of Israel — it is a new people, a spiritual nation made up of all believers.
Verse 27: "Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved." So we see two kinds of people who are God's people: those who were not a people, and a remnant that is saved and goes in.
Romans 11:1: "I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew." And verse 5: "Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace." There is a remnant — but who is it? Those who are of grace, who are saved, who have believed and come in. Paul is an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, but he is only a remnant because he believed in Jesus Christ. People like Peter and John — they are a remnant because they believed in Jesus.
Has God cast away his people? No, because there are Jews who believed and went in. Think about it — in the wilderness, if God had replaced the people of Israel with Moses, would he have cast away his people? No, because Moses is an Israelite. And Joshua, who entered the land, was of the tribe of Ephraim. So he would have just continued on and God could have made a nation out of him. And Jesus Christ himself is of Israel, he is of that line, and we are in Jesus Christ as well. There is a remnant, and Jesus Christ is of that lineage, and we are all children of God through him. So God could not have cast away his people either way you look at it.
Now turn to Hebrews chapter 3. This is speaking back to that time in the wilderness. Verse 15: "While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses." Not all — there is that remnant. "But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief."
It baffles me how people would teach today that the nation of Israel took that land in unbelief when the Bible says they could not enter in because of their unbelief. God did not put them into that land. Hebrews 4:1: "Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it." Paul is speaking to the Hebrews and saying, "Look, you had better believe this too. The gospel is preached to you just as it was preached to them. You will not enter in because of your lineage or your ethnicity. It has to be because you believe."
Verse 3: "For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world." I love this picture because the rest is picturing the Sabbath — ceasing from our works to enter into his rest. Again, it is showing that being saved is not about works. It is about ceasing from your works and resting in the finished work of the cross, in Jesus Christ. They could not enter into that rest, into salvation, in unbelief.
Verse 6: "Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief." And verse 9: "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God." Those who are the people of God are those who have entered into his rest. The people whose carcasses fell in the wilderness are not the people of God because they did not enter into his rest. The Jews who do not believe are not the people of God — they have not entered into his rest. But we who have believed, who are resting in the finished work of the cross, are the people of God.
Now let us look at who it was that actually entered in — the remnant. There was Joshua and there was Caleb. Joshua was of the tribe of Ephraim; he was an Israelite. But Caleb, the Bible tells us, is the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite. The Kenizzites were not of Israel — they were people who lived in Canaan. So we see that Caleb and his family were proselytes who had joined the nation of Israel at some point and had become part of the people. This happened all throughout the Old Testament. In the book of Esther it says that many of the people of the land became Jews. Even in the Old Testament you could become a Jew. How? Exodus 12 tells us: "And when a stranger shall sojourn with thee, and will keep the passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the land: for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof." There were two things required to become part of Israel: circumcision and keeping the Passover.
Now think about this. The remnant — the two people who entered in besides the new generation that had grown up — one was a Hebrew and one was a Gentile. The Jew and the Gentile entered into God's rest. It never really mattered about the ethnicity of the people, because God is showing us that a Jew and a Gentile are going to enter in. And what if God had replaced the nation of Israel with Moses? Well, Moses was an Israelite, but his wife was from the land of Midian, descendants of Ishmael. Even then you would have had a Jew and a Gentile. Ethnicity and lineage simply do not matter — what matters is whether you are the people of God, whether you are in the nation.
In the Old Testament it was a physical circumcision and a physical keeping of the Passover. But what is it in the New Testament? Romans 2: "For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God." The circumcision in the New Testament is that heart of flesh being cut out and a new heart being placed within you — being saved, being made a new person, having that old man cut away. Philippians says, "For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." And 1 Corinthians says, "Christ our passover." When we have believed in Christ, he becomes our Passover. That blood is applied to us and we will not be killed by the angel of death — he will pass over us by the blood of Jesus Christ. Just as in the Old Testament you could become part of the nation of Israel, the same is true in the New Testament. You can still become part of the nation of Israel — the spiritual nation, the same way. But it is a spiritual circumcision, a spiritual Passover, through Jesus Christ.
Galatians 3:26: "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." All those promises to Abraham and to Christ — we are the heirs. We will inherit the land. We will inherit the blessings. Those who bless us will be blessed — not those who bless a physical nation of unbelieving Jews over in the Middle East. We are Abraham's seed.
What did Jesus say to the Jews in the New Testament? "Ye are of your father the devil." We have Abraham as our father. Galatians 4:28: "Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now." And even so it is today, where there are those who seek to persecute Christians and shut down our message.
Verse 30: "Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman." Cast out that Old Testament nation of Israel. They are no longer God's people. They are not heirs to the promise. We are heirs to the promise. Anyone who does not believe in Jesus Christ is not God's people and will not inherit that promise.
What did Peter say about us, quoting Exodus 19 which we already read? "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy." The people of God are those who are in Jesus Christ — not a Christ-rejecting people, not a Christ-rejecting nation.
Conclusion
Point one was the pattern of God's replacement. Point two was the promise of God's replacement. Point three was the people of God's replacement.
What are we preaching on today? The replacement in the wilderness. We are looking at those two stories from the children of Israel in the wilderness, which foreshadowed and warned them that there would be a replacement if they did not believe. What do we see in Exodus 32? Israel worshipping false gods. And what did they do in the New Testament? When they rejected Jesus, they rejected God — because if you have not the Son, you have not the Father. And if you are not worshipping the Father, who are you worshipping? You are worshipping Satan. That is why the Bible calls them the synagogue of Satan.
What happened in Exodus? God threatened to replace them. What happened in the New Testament? God actually replaced them with a spiritual nation, with Jesus Christ now as the head. And he killed those who were worshipping that calf — they were cut off. Then God made a new covenant, and that new covenant is the New Testament.
In Numbers 14, what happened? They did not believe his promise to deliver them, to bring them into his rest — to save them. They did not believe God could save them. They actually tried to enter the land by themselves, and they were defeated and destroyed. You cannot enter into his rest by your own works and your own effort — it has to be through Jesus Christ and through believing in him. And what did they do? They wanted to stone Moses and Aaron. They wanted to kill the prophets — which is exactly what they did in the New Testament. They killed our Lord Jesus Christ.
And God replaced them. It took 40 years, but he brought up a new generation. All those that did not believe were replaced with a new people who believed, and only the remnant went in. Right at the very beginning of the old covenant God was warning them about what would happen if they broke that covenant. God is longsuffering — but when they killed Jesus, that was the last straw. God has replaced the nation of Israel with you and me — with those who believe in Jesus Christ.
Father God, we thank you that we can enter into your rest, Lord. We thank you that you have done all the work, that you have saved us and brought us out. Thank you, Lord, that you call us your people, your beloved, your chosen. Thank you, Lord, that we can call you our God. We just pray that you will bless us all who are here. Bless us in fellowship afterwards and in our soul-winning afterwards. We just pray that you will continue to see us grow and establish something here in Melbourne, Lord. We thank you for your mercy. We thank you for your word. In Jesus' name. Amen.